"Heavy" bombers over the Macedonian Front (1915-1918)?

[Locutus of Borg]

Dear friends!

Recently I've done a small research about the German medium and heavy bombers from the era of Great War. One of them is Friedrichshafen G.II, a "prototype" of more famous G. III version.

While reading a wikipedia, I've found an information, that:

The G.II saw active service from early 1916 with German bomber units on the Western Front and in Macedonia where it was mostly used for tactical bombing operations. At first these were conducted in daylight but later, as losses mounted, most attacks were conducted at night.

That interested me deeply and I've tried to research the topic on English and partially German internet, but with little success. I've only found an info about the English pilot who claimed to shot down heavy German bomber over Macedonian front.

Maybe you know something more about this case? Did German bombers were used by Bulgarian Air Force, or were used by Germans to support Bulgarian front? How many of them and where they were used?

[Nick]

Maybe you know something more about this case? Did German bombers were used by Bulgarian Air Force, or were used by Germans to support Bulgarian front? How many of them and where they were used?

Bulgarians didn't have any bombers during WWI. There are several memoirs of Bulgarian pilots who fought in the Great War, but they are all in Bulgarian language:



However, there are general books in English on the Bulgarian aviation. This one, for example, has good information and photos on the subject:

[dibo]

From the abovementioned book "Pilot from the Great War", p. 71:
"I learned from Marco Bonchev (Bulgarian military pliot) that in January 1917 a heavy air escadre “Kampfgeschwader 1” was located at our airfield (Udovo), which had 4 airplane wings equipped with 24 Gotha bomber biplanes each with 2 220 h.p. motors, 17 AEG bombing biplanes also with 2 220 hp engines, 6 FH bombing airplanes (biplanes) with 2 200 hp each, 4 Albatross C3 reconnaissance biplanes with 1 160hp motor each and 4 Halberstadt hunting (fighter) biplanes with 1 160hp motor each. Total 55 warplanes. The Germans were expecting another 4 Albatross D3 biplanes to arrive with 1 160hp motor each.
The bomber planes were 3-seaters (pilot, observer and machine gunner). They were armed with 2 machine guns - one for firing forward and the other for firing back. They carried 300-350 kg of bombs.
The escadre was accommodated on 3 special trains, each 250-300 m long and with 2 locomotives. Her flying field was right next to the railroad.
The escadre operated in groups of 10-15 planes, and sometimes with all its planes at once.
With this escadre the air dominance of the Thessaloniki Front was entirely on our side. Our planes almost seamlessly reached the deep rear of the enemy.
"We go," says Marko Bonchev, all the way to Thessaloniki, Veria, Negus, Voden, Ostrovo, Katerini (to Olympus, from which Zeus looks at us astounded!), without anyone stopping us. Rarely will an Entente plane be spotted - it will follow us for a while and then disappear. But recently (March 1917), things have changed.